Douglas Coupland creating replica of Stanley Park Hollow Tree

"Golden Tree" to be displayed at Marine Drive and Cambie St. as Vancouver landmark

Vancouver artist Douglas Coupland unveiled his concept for a new large-scale public art piece today. The new "Golden Tree" sculpture will be a mirror-image representation of the Hollow Tree in Stanley Park.

It is scheduled to be completed in 2015 and will become the centrepiece of the front corner plaza of a new development at Marine and Cambie.

The sculpture will be 13 metres tall. The company that commissioned it says it will be easily visible to Canada Line passengers as a landmark at Vancouver's southern gateway.

(Intracorp)

Coupland says he grew up with the Stanley Park Hollow tree and it holds many memories for him.

"In the 20th century, placing a car inside a tree didn’t feel like an ecological tragedy. Instead it seemed merely kind of cool, and in many of the old black and white photos you see of it, there’s usually a Model A parked inside, stuffed with bored men with walrus moustaches, and equally bored women wearing cameo brooches on their tightly pulled collars."